Henry heard and herbert cyril heard



UNITED STATES :PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY HEARD AND HERBERT CYRIL HEARD, OE 24 NEWPORT ROAD, .OARDIEE COUNTYOE GLAMORGAN, ENGLAND.

WIRE LACING.

SPECIFICATION'fOrming part of Letters Patent No. 352,541, dated November16, 1886.

Application filed November 2, 1885. Serial No. 181,728. (No model.)IPatented iu England August 22, 1885, No. 9,970; in Belgium October20,1885, No. 70,575; in France October 22, 1885. No. 159,192; inAustria-Hungary October 26, 18H5, and in Canada January To all whom tmay concern,.-

Be it known that we, HENRY HEARD, of 24E Newport Road, Cardiff, in thecounty of Glamorgan, Great 1 Britain, solicitor, and HER- BERTCYRIDHEARD, of the same place, engineer, have invented an ImprovedSystem of Making and Fastening Flexible Lacings, (for which applicationhas been made for Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 9,970, datedAugust 22, 1885,) of which the following is a specication. Y

The subject of our present invention is an improved construction oflacing or flexible connector, intended to be used for the purpose ofmaintaining in close contact two adjacent edges or faces of liiexiblematerial-such as leather canvas, or the like-without diminishing theflexibility of-said material at or in the immediate neighborhood of theline or area of contact.

Numerous attempts have been made to produce a connector for the abovementioned classes of material which shall be capable of easy applicationand without rigidity after being so applied 5 but in the majority ofinventions of this kind the bulk of the material which it has beennecessary or customary to employt or the comparative rigidity impartedto such material by the strain to which it must be subjected in pullingit tight, results in producing a joint which is very deficient inflexibility, and frequently gives Way in use. ,A further drawback is thebulkiness of the material, which interferes with its easy use.

Some of the accompanying gures illustrate the details of theconstruction of our invention, While in others its double application asa boot-lace and a belting-lacing is shown; altough we would have itdistinctly understood that we do not confine our invention to either ofthe two applications just mentioned, which have been selected forillustration not only lbecause laced boots and machine-belting are suchwell-known and familiar objects, but also because they represent betweenthem uses demanding the maximum tension with the maximum flexibility andcompactness.

Among other uses to which our invention can be applied with advantageare the following: for lacing leggins, gaiters, corsets, harness, andother similar articles.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a mans laced boot furnished with oneof our improvedlacings. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are respectively plan and sideelevation land plan With lace attached of the fastener illustrated inFig. l.v

In Figs. 1 to 15 there are illustrated five different kinds offasteners, either one of which may be used as a fastener for ourimproved lacings,`although we do not confine ourselves to the use of anyone of the fastenersillusf trated, inasmuch as they may all be dispensedwith and the fastening made by simply tying, hooking, or twisting thetwo ends of the lace together in any well-known manner. It follows,therefore, that when our lacing is used `with either of the fasteningdevices illustrated in detail in Figs. 2 to 15, one end of the lace isattached to the fastener, (see Fig. 2,)and the lace then taken throughthe first hole directly to the farthest hole, at which point the lacingproper really commences, whereas if our improved lace is to be usedWithout a special fastener, the necessary fastening of its ends beingaccomplished by simply twisting or the like,the lacing proper iscommenced at the farthest hole or pair of holes and finished at theterminal one or pair. We prefer that the holes in the material to beconnected should be strengthened by the insertion of metallic eyelets,which have the well-known property' of protecting the edges of the holesand preventing them from being torn.

The fastener illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 consists of an oblongmetal plate, a, in the center of which is produced, by punching out orother convenient process, an eye, b, to which the end c'of the lace isfastened. From the opposite side of the plate there spring three headedpins, ddd. The two Outer ones are in line next to one side edge of theplate a, and the central one out of line With its neighbors and next theopposite edge of the plate. The right and left spacing of the pinsenable them to maintain a tight grip upon the end of the lace,

which is passed left and right between them,as shown in Figs.- 1 and 4.

Laces made according to our invention consist of several strands of finemetal wire-such as bronze or steel, or other metal combining flexibilitywith tenacity-of a suitable number and thickness for the purpose oftheinvention.v The individual strands are then twisted, woven, plaited,or worked together in any convenient or suitable vway,preferably bymachinery of an y well-known type. q

Figs. 1,4, and 6 show, respectively,a twisted, a woven, and a plaitedlace. p

When the laces have been cnt ofi` the requisite length, both ends, oronly one, according as to whether a special fastener is to be vused ornot, are dipped into molten metal, or otherwise metallically connected,so as to form a solid end or tag, e, which is then capable of beingpointed, as shown inv Figs. 1, 4, 6, and by the tags s2 s2 in Figs. 16to 22. Theuse of our invention as a boot-lace with a special fastener isillustrated in full in Fig. 1. The blunt end of the'lace f, having beensecurely fastened to the eye of the fastener in anyrconvenient way,ispassed through the first hole, across and under the junction of the twoedges g l1., as indicated by the dotted lines, and out at the far holej, from which point it is laced-over and under until it emerges from 7c,the companion hole to the rst one, where it is fastened by being passedbetween the pins of the fastener, and, lastly, bent partially round thelast pin d. (Sec Figs. 1 and 4.) rlhe lace is thus bent three times asit passes through the fastener, and, being made of metal strands, itwill not readily unbend, as would a leather or :mohair one. Thefrictional grip of the pins upon it is therefore and thereby maintaineduntil straightening the lace at the angles e and e'l (see Fig. 4)releases it from the fastenershold upon it and allows of the process ofunlacing being proceeded with forthwith.

The four modifications of the fastener above described with reference toFigs. 1 to 4, and illustrated, respectively', in Figs. 5 and 6, 7 to 9,10 to 12, and 13 to 15, are equally applicable with the former tofastening our improved flexible metallic lace. In either modificationthe lace is held by the frictional grip of the pins or equivalentprojections of the fastener upon it, which grip is maintained so long asthe bends in the lace as it passes through the fastener are notstraightened out.

The fastener in Figs. 5 and 6 is made out of a short length of wire,bent so as to produce three eyes, Z Z Z2. One end of the lace isfastened to the central eye, Z', and the tag end passed up through oneeye, Z, and down through the other, Z2, for effecting terminalfastening.

The fastener illustrated in Figs. 7, 8, and 9, which are respectivelyside and end elevation and plan, consists of a plate of metal, on,corresponding with the plate a of Figs. 2, 3, and 4, and having acentral eye, n, corresponding with the eye b of Fig. 3, and three hooks,o o o2, of rectangular section, with rounded edges to prevent the lacebeing in jured. These last are placed, relatively to each other, on theplate m in the same way as the pins d d d on the plate a of Figs. 2, 3,and 4, and the fastener is used in the same way as described withreference to the one illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4. y

The fastener illustrated in Figs.,10, 11, and 12, which are respectivelyside and end elevation and plan, consists of a plate of metal, p, withan eye, p', corresponding, respectively, with the plate a and eye b ofFigs. 2,3, and 4, and two prongs, q q', projecting in oppositedirections from the opposite side of the plate p.

rlhe fastener illustrated in Figs. 13, 14, and 15, which arerespectively sideand end elevation and plan, consists of two eyes, r 1f,through which the lace is threaded in the same way as illustrated inFigs. 5 and 6, for the purpose of effecting terminal fastening, and athird eye, r2, corresponding in point of function with the eyes p', n,b, and Z", previously described, to which the lace is securely fixedbefore it is used as a lace.

The way in which the pins of the fastener described with reference toFigs. 1 to 4, or the hooks of the fasteners described with reference toFigs. 7, 8, 9 and Figs. 10, 11, and 12, respectively, or the eyes of thefasteners described with reference to Figs. 5, 6, and Figs. 13, 14, 15,respectively, hold their respective laces is practically the same-viz.,frictional grip only-in each modification of our improvedlacing-fastener.

- We do not specify any particular method for the manufacture of ourimproved fasteners, as they may be either stamped or cast, or producedin any other convenient and suitable way.

The remaining figures illustrate the application of our improved lacingsmade with both ends tagged and pointed, and used, therefore, without anyspecial fastener.

Figs. 16 and 17 are respectively side elevation and plan of two adjacentfaces laced together. S is the lacing, laced under and over from thefirst pair of holes, s s, to the last pair, s s', where the tagged endss2 .s2 are hooked together. Figs. 18 and 19 are respectively plan andside elevation, showing our invention applied to the connection of twoadjacent edges. Figs. 20 and 21 are respectively plan and elevationshowing our invention applied to the connection of two adjacent edges,the lines of lacing being diagonal and crossing each other, instead ofparallel. Fig. 22 is a plan showing the application of our invention tothe connection of two `adjacent edges, the system of lacing being nearlythe sameas in the application illustrated in Figs. 18 and 19.

Any other system or type of lacing, as far as regards the direction,parallel or diagonal of the lacing, and whether the same is single ordouble, may be adopted, according to the spe cial requirements of thecase to which the laeing is to be applied.

We wish it to be distinctly understood that,

IIO

according to our invention, we make our improved laces by unitingstrands of wire without, eithe rprevious or subsequently to the saidvuse wire strands to strengthen or improve laces by incorporating thestrands with'the material or materials-such as flax or cottonof whichthe lace is made, the wire strands forming but a small proportion of thebulk of the whole-as, for instance, in the specification of a patent forbeltlaces No. 313,974, March 17, 1885; but according to our invention Weuse nothing else' but wire, which, it is well known, possesses a muchgreater capacity foi` resisting wear and tear than such materials asflax, cotton, or leather, and, besides this, permits of the tagbeingproduced by so simple and economical a method as soldering the ends ofthe different wire strands together, whichwould be impracticable if anymaterial incapable of withstanding the heat of hot metal or of beingincorporated with hot metallic solder were used in the manufacture ofthe lace.

To produce a pointed tag, the pointing may be produced either before orafter the formation of the tag.

We claim- 1. A flexible metallic lace consisting of several metal wirestwisted, plaited, or woven to gether, in combination with a solid metaltag at each or both of the ends of said lace, each tag consisting of theends of the wire strands of the lace united and mutually incorporated bysolder or molten metal, substantiall y as hereinbefore described.

2. In combination with a eXible composite metallic wire lace forconnecting the adjacent edges or surfaces of eXible material ormaterials, a fastener or locking device to which the two ends of saidlace can be fastened, one end permanently and the other releasably, saidfastener or locking device consisting of a plate having an eye formed onits under face, to which the rst-above-mentioned lace end can befastened permanently, and having three pins projecting from its upperface, which are set alternately a little out of line with each other,substantially as hereinbefore described.

3. The combination of a boot and a flexible metallic lace consisting ofseveral metal wires twisted, plaitcd, or woven together, said lace beingfurnished with a solid metal tag at one end` consisting of the ends ofthe metal wires united and mutually incorporated by solder or moltenmetal, with a fastener or locking device to which the untagged end ofthe lace can be fastened permanently and the tagged end releasably, saidfastener or locking device consisting of a plate having an eye formed onits under surface, to which the untagged end of the lace can bepermanently fastened, and having also three pins on its upper face setthereon alternately a little out oi" line With each other, substantiallyas hereinbefore described. v'

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

HENRY HEARD. HERBERT CYRIL HEARD. Witnesses:

SAMUEL LLEwELLYN DADDs, 248 Cowbrz'dge Road, Oardtl, Glamorgan, Solicit-0r8 Clerk. l

PETER ROBERTS,

19 Tredegar Street, Oarcll, Glamorgan, Solz'clth ors O lerk.

